Private Club — Texas ID required
Can a Texas Bar Really Turn You Away Because You Don’t Have a Texas ID?
Published: December 2025
Someone walked in The Island Club on Ferguson Road in East Dallas, handed the door showed his valid ID (MIGHT HAVE BEEN A GREEN CARD), and got told: “Sorry, we only accept Texas IDs.”
Ten steps away, the bar literally next door never asked for ID or membership at all.
After a lot of digging, here’s the full explanation every traveler, college kid, and new Texan needs to know.
Any valid government-issued photo ID (out-of-state license, passport, military ID) is legally acceptable under Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission rules.
The Private-Club Loophole in Dallas
Dallas County is a patchwork of “wet,” “dry,” and “partially dry” precincts. In many dry or partially dry areas, a normal bar can’t get a liquor license. The workaround? Become a private club with a TABC Private Club Registration Permit (N permit).
What that means for you:
- You fill out a quick membership card (sometimes free, sometimes $5–$20).
- Only “members” (and up to three guests each) can buy alcohol.
- The club has to keep records in case TABC audits them.
Because of that record-keeping headache, some clubs (like The Island Club) decide the simplest thing is to require a Texas driver’s license or Texas ID only. It’s a house policy, not state law.
Why the Bar Next Door Never Asks for Membership
Walk ten feet from The Island Club and you’ll hit another bar that doesn’t require any membership card. That’s because they probably hold a regular Mixed Beverage Permit (MB) instead of a private-club permit. Their side of the parking lot (or the street) falls into a “wet” precinct where normal bars are allowed. Same city, same zip code, completely different rules.
Myth: “If They Serve Food, They Don’t Need to Be a Private Club”
Nope. The Island Club serves pizza just like the bar next door. Serving food does not automatically let you sell liquor in a dry area. The Food and Beverage (FB) certificate that restaurants use still requires the location to be in a legally wet precinct (or to have won a local vote). Food alone doesn’t override the precinct map.
Yes, It Usually Comes Down to the 51% Rule
Even when two bars next door both serve pizza, Texas’s famous “51% rule” can force one into private-club status:
- More than 51% of revenue from alcohol → classified as a bar → can’t get the restaurant-style permit in dry areas → must become a private club.
- 51% or less from alcohol (food and non-alcohol sales dominate) → qualifies as a restaurant → can get a Food & Beverage Certificate → no membership required.
The Island Club is almost certainly over the 51% alcohol threshold, so their only legal option is the private-club route. The spot next door keeps food sales high enough to stay under 51% and operates like a normal bar.
What You Can Actually Do
- Carry your passport – almost every strict private club will accept it.
- Ask to sign in as a guest of a member (up to three guests per member allowed).
- Go literally anywhere else – Deep Ellum, Lower Greenville, Uptown, Bishop Arts, etc. don’t care where your ID is from.
- File a TABC complaint only if they claim “Texas law requires a Texas ID” (that’s provably false).
“There is no requirement in the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code or TABC rules that says a private club must require a Texas ID.”
— TABC Public Information Office
Final Takeaway
A handful of private-club bars in Dallas really will refuse you if you only have an out-of-state ID. It’s legal (as a private business rule), it’s annoying, and it’s not because Texas law says so.
Know the difference between a real bar and a private club, carry your passport when you’re exploring the sketchier neighborhoods, and you MIGHT NOT get turned away again.
Cheers (with whatever state’s ID you have),
Have you been turned away for an out-of-state ID in Texas? Tell me where in the comments – I’ll keep this list updated!
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